Neil J. RubenkingTrend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2012Trend Micro delivers on its promise of unobtrusive protection that's easy to use. The problem is, both PCMag's tests and some independent lab tests show that it just doesn't protect as well as the competition.

Trend Micro delivers on its promise of unobtrusive protection that's easy to use. The problem is, both PCMag's tests and some independent lab tests show that it just doesn't protect as well as the competition.

Slightly Better Malware BlockingAs noted, Trend Micro's protection for a clean system starts at the browser. Using data gathered by SPN, a browser add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox blocks access to known malicious Web sites. Trend Micro reports that it's very good at blocking the very newest threats. I'm not yet equipped to test zero-day malicious URLs, but I'll be adding that test at some point.

For now, I tried re-downloading my existing malware collection, figuring that if Trend Micro can block zero-day threats it should have no trouble with these older ones. Impressively, Trend Micro's browser add-on blocked 89 percent of those whose URLs are still valid. Out of recent products only TrustPort Antivirus 2012 ($39.95 direct, 3.5 stars), with 93 percent, has blocked more.

Next I opened a folder containing samples downloaded earlier. Trend Micro detected 40 percent of them right away and reported its cleanup activities using a notification popup. No action was required on my part. Rather than use multiple popups it rolled all notifications into a single one.

I launched each of the remaining 60 percent of the threats and observed just when (or whether) Trend Micro blocked its installation. Initially I was surprised at the low detection rate. When I dug into the detailed logs I found quite a few traces marked as merely "detected," not removed.

My Trend Micro contacts explained that information about these had been sent to SPN, and that further analysis would come back to my test system within two to four hours. At the next full or background scan the items identified as malicious by SPN would be removed. This is a blocking test, not a full scan test. Until that scan, the detected threats are still running. In my book that's not good.

However, Trend Micro hit a new low in it malware removal score, with just 7.1 points. G Data has the top score so far, 9.0 points, and Outpost is close behind with 8.8.

Trend Micro did detect all of the rootkit and scareware samples. Several of each group were merely detected, not treated in any way, so it scored 6.3 for rootkit blocking (another new low) and 8.3 for scareware blocking. For details on how I come up with these scores see How We Test Malware Blocking.

Mediocre Phishing ProtectionThe same technology that lets Trend Micro steer users away from dangerous sites also protects against known fraudulent (phishing) sites. However, in testing it wasn't nearly as effective as the malicious site blocking, especially against the very newest phishing sites.

Trend Micro's detection rate was 57 percentage points below Norton AntiVirus 2011 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) and 27 points below Internet Explorer's built-in SmartScreen Filter. It's true that the majority of antiphishing solutions aren't even as effective as Internet Explorer alone. However, Bitdefender managed to come in 9 percentage points above Norton, and G Data InternetSecurity 2012 ($44.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars) came in just one point below. For an explanation of how I locate very new phishing sites and derive these results see How We Test Antiphishing.

Good IntentionsFast yet powerful, smart but simple, strong against malware without getting in your way… you have to admire Trend Micro's stated goals. It definitely manages to remain unobtrusive, yet for those who want to know the score it offers a useful summary report as well as full details. And it's very good at identifying and blocking sites that host malware.

The problem is, in my simple hands-on tests it just didn't perform. Its malware cleanup scores were low, and one threat completely balked the antivirus and its numerous support tools, requiring a remote-control cleanup session. It has improved over Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus + 2011 ($39.95 direct, 2 stars), but I still can't recommend it.

Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2012

Bottom Line: Trend Micro delivers on its promise of unobtrusive protection that's easy to use. The problem is, both PCMag's tests and some independent lab tests show that it just doesn't protect as well as the competition.

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990, he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His "User to User" column supplied readers with tips...
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